Pauline Tully (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator. I give apologies on behalf of Deputy Canney as I neglected to do so at the beginning of the meeting.

I have a few comments and questions of my own. I thank the NDA officials for the opening statement. It encompassed an awful lot of what we discuss at this committee regularly. We hear from people with lived experience. There is nothing in there we could disagree with. Obviously, everything is important.

Coming from and educational background, I am particularly interested in education, the EPSEN Act and the move towards inclusive education. Has the authority any role in the review going on at the moment? It was opened to submissions, so anybody or any organisation could make a submission, but has the authority a larger role than that? I ask because, as Dr. Hartney said, the EPSEN Act was brought in in tandem with the Disability Act, yet the latter is not being reviewed. This committee has called for it to be reviewed, as has the Joint Committee on Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth. The indication we are getting so far is it will not be, but we have a number of Departments coming to our next couple of meetings and we will be putting that to them. We hope there will be a change of mind there. It is a prime example of what we mean when we talk about Departments working in silos. For example, we are all aware there is a huge backlog in the assessment of need process. One will hear the Minister of State with responsibility for disability saying people do not need a diagnosis to get services, but if someone wants to get a child a place in a special class or special school then he or she needs a diagnosis for the child. That is an example of two Departments not having a joined-up approach to this and that leading to problems. I share the concerns around how while there is increased investment in special education and in our schools, it is in many ways leading to more segregation. Some schools are very good at having a special school or autism class, but with the students being integrated into mainstream for part of the day. That is working well, but not all schools are doing that. Has the authority a role in regard to the EPSEN Act?